The fill or effect materials are long tailed neps and these have been manufactured in the mechanism described in U.S. patent specification No. 4,761,857. The fill or effect material is sold by the applicants licensees under the trade mark "soft knops". The mechanism described in U.S. patent specification No. 4,761,857 is a modified wooden opening mechanism and although the material can be produced satisfactorily on this type of machine there is a need in the market place for a purpose built machine for producing in bulk the long tailed neps.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide an apparatus for producing in bulk long tailed neps.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparant from the following description which is given by way of example only.